Knight of the Platformer
by MegaNano
Summary: When your local GAMER system server doesn't have enough processing, you have to make some sacrifices. When Jaune is chosen as a new GAMER, those changes rear their heads. No EXP. No Quest Lines. No Leveling. No Magic. No Equipment. What is left in the system for Jaune? Just the clothes on his back, his aura, a set of legs, and a storyteller AI. Maybe a genre change is in order?


_'Wow, she's getting pretty close.'_

"Now, close your eyes and concentrate." The woman, who in Jaune's mind was way too nice looking to be this close to him, placed a delicate hand on the side of his face.

'_Brothers... her hand is soft-_'

"Jaune?" She spoke up when Jaune grew slightly glassy-eyed at the rapid personal development.

"R-right! Eyes closed." He immediately shut his eyes, slightly tighter than was really needed. It distracted him from the increasing realization of how nicely she smelled.

"Alright. You might feel something," she slightly paused trying to put it into words, "it may be a little awkward per se, but don't panic," the redhead spoke softly to the rapidly blushing blonde. The voice was not helping at all.

Jaune couldn't help but think of how cool it was going to be. If he had this Aura around him, he could be unstoppable. Maybe it would make up for how much he knew about swordplay and shield use, which was none. He took a shaky breath as his nerves started to fire on his skin. The tingling sensation wouldn't fade, and his hair stood on end. It felt like a breath of air drifted past his ears.

"For it is in passing that we achieve immortality."

'_Okay, there's a speech-_'

"Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in wisdom and unbound by death."

'_That's a lot deeper than I thought was going to be. But I-I'm ready._' Pyrrha placed a hand on Jaune's chest, he immediately flinched at the touch but immediately felt a renewed energy flow from it. _'Oh man, this is it.'_

"I release your soul, and by my shoulder, protect thee." Jaune almost muttered something before he felt the energy from before exploding from inside. Colors flashed before his eyes and indiscernible music played vivid melodies past his ears. For a split second, he felt so much larger than life. The weights were lifted, and he could truly feel what humanity was supposed to feel. The colors, lights, and sounds rushed through his head with such vigor he was somewhat overwhelmed.

Then the numbers came. The colors removed themselves a dissolved into numbers and letters. The sounds grew more and more dissonant and suddenly devolved into beeps and chips. Everything he was feeling soon dimmed and left him choking for air. From his hands and feet were covered in painful pins and needles.

Was he screaming, it felt like he was screaming. His mouth was open, but nothing came out. Wasn't Pyrrha with him! She had to have seen him in this state. Maybe this was normal?

'_Please! This has to stop! -_'

"Wait! User! Stop struggling!" A voice broke through the screaming tones.

'_Pyrrha! It hurts!_' Jaune felt himself flail in the new rainbow void of his senses.

"User! This wasn't supposed to happen!" The voice didn't catch Jaune's attention but a sudden smack to the side of his face caused him to gasp. "Just stay calm and I will… I will work out why this didn't work."

Jaune heard that last remark and felt his screams settle slightly. It still hurt like he never experienced real pain before but now he tried to focus on the voice that slapped him before.

"Okay… Okay…" the voice paused, "Okay, I think I know what's happening."

Jaune groaned out a shaky whimper.

"Something is drawing away from the total server operation it would normally take for the interactive environment to fully initialize."

Jaune's groan gained the inflection of a question.

"I'm confused about it too. The whole environment shouldn't have taken this long to load in."

"Wha-argh," Jaune finally said the first thing to his mind. It was still a combination of confusion and pain.

"I just have too," the voice clicked its tongue in concentration, "Decrease the CPU load, and remove about 76% of memory processes." There were a few moments of pause before a very rapid set of beeping tones filled Jaune's head. The colors soon faded from his sight and left a blank white expanse. Jaune realized that pain faded away into a gentle numbness. He felt himself collapse on a very cold floor, breathing heavily from the amount of screaming he was doing just seconds before.

"There. That's a much better framerate," the voice emanated from the room itself, seemingly far off in the distance while being right next to his ear, "Are you alright user-"

"User. _User! _What are you talking about?" Jaune shouted at a speaking level. His throat was worn dry from his pain before.

"Sorry," the voice, vaguely feminine, apologized briskly, "This was never supposed to hurt, but I guess even I make mistakes."

"Why am I the user?" Jaune ignored the voice's sorry excuse for an apology. He began to get up on his hands and knees. A real struggle when his extremities still felt detached from him.

"Well, User, you are a very lucky individual. You are the sole recipient of incredible power." Jaune perked up at that last remark.

"Really?" Jaune was still confused but the pain washed away from the hope he felt.

"Yes, I am your… your," sounds of pages being tossed bounced around in the white room, "Your Semblance! Yes, that's what I'm called."

"Wow!" Jaune tried to be impressed, "S-should I know what that is?"

"Probably, but we're both making mistakes today so don't worry your little head about it." Jaune started to check the room for evidence of where he was. There was white in on direction and white in the other. He couldn't see any evidence of where the voice was coming from.

"Are you in my mind? Or am I just going crazy?" Jaune asked as he quickly realized how wrong the infinite expanse of the void was.

"Don't worry, you'll see me soon enough. That, however, isn't nearly as important as your new powers!" Jaune didn't notice the change in the subject.

"Awesome! What is it?" Jaune said in an awed tone.

"It is the power of-" she paused dramatically, "The GAMER! To start your journey of unceasing power think '_Stats_' to open your Statistics menu!"

Jaune immediately grew excited. Gaming was probably one of the only things he was good at. Besides being a human doll for his many sisters. (Not on purpose mind you.)

'_Stats!'_ Jaune thought as he continued to smile himself silly. He couldn't have asked for a cooler ability. Even if he didn't know what it does. He couldn't even wait any longer. The menu was taking its time to appear.

"Does the menu, um, pop up immediately?" Jaune asked carefully, fearing he did something wrong.

"Saying it out loud might work better," she mumbled to herself as kind of an afterthought. Jaune took it as a hint.

"Stats," he said loud and clear. No way anything would not recognize the command. The menu didn't come up. Jaune stood there awkwardly for about half a minute before the voice interrupted.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, "I still have everything paused. Wait one second…"

Jaune waited a single second then immediately started to scream.

"PAUSE IT!" Everything that hurt just came back tenfold, the colors and numbers rushing into his mind like shoppers on Black Friday.

"System, Stop Processes!" Jaune didn't hear her but he felt the release of the pain as everything stopped.

"Don't ever do that again…" Jaune groaned to the ground. He couldn't get up from his position on the floor. Although the painful noises were gone, leaving nothing but his rapid breaths, heartbeat, and ramblings of a very nervous voice.

"I can't have a GAMER without…" she trailed off at the end. "Just do your magic, reduce the local process. It's that simple. Get rid of the... implementation of the Mana Magic System..."

Jaune internally groaned, he could've had some cool magic bolts and stuff. Nuts.

"Remove a -my god- huge amount of variable item objects"

Jaune sighed, he just missed on so many cool weapons. And armors. And artifacts. And weird rings that boost his stats. Double nuts.

"After trashing so many custom quests, and the EXP System, I have now completely lost everything that has to do with Role-Playing Games."

"Aw nuts… I mean," Jaune thought for a brief moment, "aw nuts."

"How can I have a GAMER power without leveling and stats! It just makes no sense." She grumbled to herself, she was left with barely a storyteller AI and a handful of item-types. Nothing she did to optimize allowed for any of the most important aspects.

"So, what happens now?"

"What happens now is that you go back and forget that all of this never happened," she said poignantly. Jaune immediately grew nervous.

"Wait, you can't just…" Jaune tried to articulate his feelings in a way that didn't seem too entitled, "Tease this power and give me nothing!" He still sounded rather entitled.

"I'm not Sega and giving you a broken, half baked excuse for a game. It would break you to even attempt to load it. It's half done and would be a very boring RPG. You're better off untouched."

_'A very boring RPG… RPG…'_

"Well, I just send you back. It was nice meeting you potential User-"

"Wait! Does it need to be an RPG?" There was a moment's pause as the question echoed in the white void. Except for an increasing bout of laughter.

"Do you -Haha- understand what this -Hah- this power is? It's to change your life into a game, not convert you into some sort of Zelda clone!"

"Why not?"

"Because I… because that they… because it wouldn't make sense, that's why! All GAMER powers are Role Playing, a quest of items and levels. Of incredible stat building and class specifications. I just wouldn't be able to make it worthwhile."

"What about simpler games. Like FPS?"

"Have you ever fired a gun?"

"I could!"

"Well, that does wonders for your point."

Jaune swore under his breath, of course, he's never fired a gun. His dad would never let him touch one.

"A strategy game! Like an RTS maybe!" He was alright at those types of games. Not good enough to be competitive but he could play it.

"Have you led an army of different units, maxing out micro and macro to computational levels? Unless there's a calculator implanted into your head, it would never work."

"Come on! So does it have to be something I can do now? All that leaves is freaking life simulators. Or survival builders, I went camping a couple of times"

"Do you control the thoughts and hold god-like powers to punch the logs off of trees?"

"I could! With Aura, I definitely could!" An aura of doubt powered through the white void. "I mean I think I… ah forget it."

"That's right you will, now let's send you back." A couple of tacks of a keyboard emanated through the void.

As Jaune was left with his thoughts, a wave of just self-doubt washed over him. There was nothing in gaming that he could do personally. He wasn't a crack shot, a human-computer, or some sort of magic god-like being. All he could do was stumble around, swing a sword, do everything a normal person without Aura could do. He wasn't some sort of the main character. I mean if someone said, "Jump!", Jaune would ask "How high?"

"_How high…_"

"Have fun apart of whatever universe you should be in, User." Soon after the voice said that a sudden wave of white light was traveling up Jaune's body.

"WAIT!" Jaune shouted at the top of his lungs. A deep irritated sigh rocked the void.

"I have to send you back. I can't hold the active pause forever in that dimension." The light continued to travel across Jaune's extremities. His fingers were first to drift away in a breeze of particles. Then his feet and lower legs. He had one final idea before he was sent back.

"PLATFORMER!" The wave of light continued to climb all over him. His eyes didn't notice the top of his head vaporizing as well. The last thing he felt was the rush of pressure in the back of his head before he became a dusting of flowing particles.

* * *

"J..."

"Jaune…"

"...Up"

"W-what?" Jaune asked deliriously.

"Jaune, wake up! Dust! Are you okay!?" A very worried Pyrrha was currently above a very passed out Jaune Arc. She had never seen such an adverse effect by an Aura unlocking. It looked like it was going so well before he just fell over backward.

"Pyrrha?" Jaune asked deliriously to the red-haired blob that sat over him.

"Thank the brothers!" Pyrrha let loose a breath she held on since he fell, "Are you okay Jaune?"

"I think I had the weirdest dream."

"Hah, what was the dream about?" Pyrrha asked breathlessly as a warm smile spread across her face.

"I was a user… and I got my semblance. Whatever that is." Jaune scowled as the void stayed in his head. He was sure that the lady said he would forget everything. Another mistake she made, or it was all a fever dream.

"A semblance? You unlocked your semblance?" Pyrrha asked curiously.

"That's a real thing? Not a thing my brain made up. Huh." He looked around the wooded forest that he was in just a little bit before. Sitting up he rubbed the back of his sore neck.

"Watch it... "A voice came out behind him. It was remarkably familiar. Pyrrha jumped at least a mile from the third voice inserting itself into the conversation.

"Who the dust was that? Show yourself please!" Pyrrha asked politely as she could while in a combative stance. As Jaune looked behind him for the third voice. As soon as he turned his back, he heard Pyrrha suck in a rapid breath. "Jaune! What the dust is that?"

"What is what?" Jaune turned back towards the redhead. She shockingly held a finger to the hood of his black Pumpkin Pete hoodie. He immediately ran a hand to his hood, rustling free a small, warm something or other. A girlish yelp emanated behind him followed by a thump on the grassy floor.

"User, please!" The voice was instantly recognizable.

"You!" Jaune whipped around him fast enough to blow a noticeable breeze. He drew his head back as a bright light was twinkling in front of his face. It was in the shape of a hand-sized fairy. Its wings formed a rainbow fan of dust crystals behind the white orb of bright light. "This is what you look like?"

"No, I don't look like anything usually, but to do everything I want this _semblance_ to get done I have to come down to your level of existence." She bobbed and weaved as she talked, leaving a trail of sparkling dust in the air. "It was a pain, so you better be grateful user!"

"I thought that you-" Jaune was interrupted by rush shushing sounds.

"Be grateful!" Her colors turned to a fiery red. Jaune stepped back afoot as she closed the distance between her and Jaune's face. Pyrrha tried to get a better look at the certainly magical creature that floated in front of her partner.

"So why are you a Dust Fairy, specifically?" Jaune asked carefully as it seemed that whatever she was, she was peeved. She slowed her bobbing to a crawl as she thought about that question.

"What the developer is that?" "Jaune? What's a dust fairy?" Both ladies in the vicinity talked over one another, looked at each other for a few moments, then sighed at their equal confusion.

"Well, you know the Dust Fairy, right?" Both ladies shook their heads. "She's the thing in those picture books. You know, the ones that taught the basic dust types to kids and stuff." Pyrrha put her hand to her chin in thought, trying to think about any children's book like that.

"That's… that's what I used?" Jaune nodded succinctly. "A children book character? I thought this was an actual creature here!" She turned bright pink as her voice climbed an octave. "I -ah- t-took this from your head so it's-it's y-your fault!" She was acting a lot less confident than before, Jaune noticed.

"You just can't be Jaune's semblance, semblances just don't think by themselves! It can't act like this separate thing." Pyrrha gestured at fairy stammering up a storm.

"So, what, I looked at this semblance stuff. I can exist you walking electromagnet- "

"Stop, it's alright Pyrrha, she's was in my visions when I was passed out anyways." Jaune placed a placating hand in front of both.

"Well if she is some sort of different being. Then what is her name?" Pyrrha replied kind of irritated. Jaune turned to the fairy as well, his eyes seemingly speaking the same question.

"Well, I guess it's no time like the present." She cleared her throat, "I'm your FLUDD to your Mario. Your Navi to your Link. Your Kazooie to your Banjo. Your Tails to your Sonic. Your hat on your Hat Kid."

Pyrrha grew confused halfway through. Babbling about how banjos and kazoos had to do with anything. Jaune, on the other hand, was grinning wider and wider. Splitting his face with giddy excitement.

"I am," A drumroll started from around the forest.

"Your faithful companion!" She flew around Jaune, leaving a trail a rainbow, sparkling dust.

"Lustre!" She exploded in the air with a bright display of light and particles. It caused Jaune to flinch at the fireworks sized explosion. When he opened his eyes again, he noticed a slight spot at the corner of his vision. It was a circle of white, split into three sections labeled with a simple type reading "Aura". He broke into a smile and almost went cross-eyed when he looked at the HUD.

"It's time, too start something all-new gamers must do!" Lustre exclaimed with a dramatic flair.

"…Gamer?" Pyrrha rose an eyebrow. Jaune took a deep excited breath.

"The Tutorial!" Jaune exclaimed back, like a child watching a kid's television. Pyrrha looked at her partner with hardly concealed concern. Before being floored by a flickering neon yellow sign rising above him.

_TUTORIAL START!_

* * *

Authors Note!

Well, this is a new thing... and I hope you all enjoy it. It's more of proof than anything concrete. I still need to flesh out a villain and an item set. But I hope that I can put enough of a spin on the gamer fic so it doesn't copy everyone else.


End file.
